Soldier
by Darkwalk12
Summary: Sometimes the past doesn't leave us as much as we think.


Song fics:

The Hunted

Bad Sun

Soldier

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* * *

Rubble cracked beneath his feet. The bitter and sharp sounds made him wince but it was unavoidable. There was no clear ground to walk on.

For a moment, the gaping hole where a roof should have been disappeared, the twisted metal unbent and back on the walls and ceiling where it belonged. Pillars erected out of thin air supported the weight of the building and a warm haze swept across the floor. Instead of cold starlight bathing everything in silver, a golden glow of lights and a dead sun brought the Docks to life. Memory overlay his optics, visions of freighters and laughter as his co-workers rushed about to haul cargo.

Primus, he missed that.

For a moment, he thought perhaps he should climb up to one of the few remaining outlooks to get a better view but his spark lurched harshly at the thought. He didn't want to see the wide range of damage. Besides, he'd rarely been up there before, so it wasn't a place he felt drawn too.

Slowly weaving between the shattered walls and scorched flooring, the mech tried to remember the songs they'd sung as they'd worked. There had been many, light-hearted and rough and ones for spark-breaks and others for insulting each other. He remembered that. He did. The words were the things that slipped away like wraiths across this silent graveyard.

His graveyard, in some ways.

No. Don't think of that. It hardly mattered.

Optimus started humming, trying to think of what he's used to sing with his friends. A low tune curled out of his mouth, winding through the silent building. It wasn't a dockworker's song. Maybe Ironhide had taught it to him. Probably. He couldn't recall where this one was from.

(( _Soldier keep on marching on_ _  
_ _Head down till the work is done_ _  
_ _Waiting on the morning sun_ _  
_ _Soldier keep on marching on))_

In the distance, a very faint whine started. Perhaps the layers were shifting again. Many places were unstable now, supports whittled to the bone and wilting under the strain. But it was far away, so Optimus continued. The words came out clearer, grim and somber.

(( _Head in the dust, feet in the fire_ _  
_ _Labor on that midnight wire_ _  
_ _Listening for that angel choir_ _  
_ _You got nowhere to run))_

It wasn't one of his old songs but it hardly mattered. Anything to chase away the deafening silence that stalked him through the ruins.

A faint ringing noise picked up as he walked through what had once been a grand doorway into the loading dock courtyard. Crushed buildings rose on several sides, busted windows gaping like hungry maws while transports listed on their sides, empty of their cargo long long ago. A few errant datapads lay scattered and poked out from beneath crushing wreckage. As he stepped quietly past it all, his footsteps kicked up a pale filmy dust. Silicon powder. Several empty containers lay dented by the wall.

(( _You wanna take a drink of that promise land_ _  
_ _Gotta wipe the dirt off your hands))_

The ringing sharpened to a distinct ting-ting noise. Something had to be dripping onto metal. But Optimus pretended it was the workers hammering out titan-steel plates, breaking platinum down to be shipped across the planet, or swinging their chisels to chip at the anthracite blocks.

 _((_ _Careful son you got dreamers plans_ _  
_ _But it gets hard to stand))_

A quick intake, his voice quieting. For a moment, it had really sounded like the strike of the hammers and not just his memories.

Optimus hummed in baritone before raising his voice, tone strong. It echoed and seemed to reverberate. Reaching out, a work-rough servo followed the wall as he struggled over debris. Stopping at the pillars that marked the rest of the Docks from the main complex, the red and blue mech noted that his hands reached higher than they once had. He was taller now.

The clanging got louder.

(( _Soldier keep on marching on_ _  
_ _Head down till the work is done_ _  
_ _Waiting on the morning sun_ _  
_ _Soldier keep on marching on))_

The ground fell away to reveal the storage bays, rails, and canals. What a mess it was. Only due to memorization was he able to tell where everything had once stood. Starlight and darkness bore down on the metal. It was so dull and rough now, gray tones where it had been scuffed and well-kept bronze.

Eerie groans creaked around him but Orion was too caught up in his memories to truly notice.

(( _Quiet now, you're gonna wake the beast_ _  
_ _Hide your soul out of his reach_ _  
_ _Shiver to that broken beat_ _  
_ _Dark into the heat))_

Tapping his feet in rhythm, Orion traced a route through the wreckage. He'd walked this way a million times before. He knew where he was going. The steady tings and clangs matched his tune. Low pulsing thrums of ghostly transports vibrated the ground and the under-layers like a pulse.

But it grew quiet in an instant.

 _((oh-ooh oh-ooh oh-ooh oh-ooh oh-ooh_

 _oh-ooh oh-ooh oh-ooh oh-ooh oh-ooh))_

Like a rushing wave, servos clapped together in symphony to join the song. Workers lifted their voices, soft sopranos and deep baritones that shook down to the foundations as they went about their jobs. Faint images of dead mechs and femmes appeared out of the rubble and dust. Orion's optics widened but he didn't dare stop singing.

 _((oh-oooh oh-oooh oh-oooh oh-oooh_

 _oh-oooh oh-oooh oh-oooh oh-oooh))_

Mechs tapped their feet and twirled as they waltzed by carrying boxes and crates on their shoulders.

(( _Soldier keep on marchin'_ _  
_ _Keep on, keep on, keep on, keep on, keep on marching on_ _  
_ _Keep on, keep on marching, keep on, marching on ))_

It grew louder and louder, afterimages of people brushing past as transports came into and left the station. Voices swelled across the ruins, waking phantoms and lost beings.

(( _Soldier keep on marchin', keep on, keep on_

 _Keep on marching on, keep on keep on marchin' ))_

The Docks came to life, people going about their business as they once had. Some looked to Orion, singing to him as they knelt on the broken walls. Gears ground, wheels spinning and machinery creaking as it worked. Sheet metal was rattled while fists banged against whatever surface was available.

(( _Soldier keep on marching on_ _  
_ _Head down till the work is done_ _  
_ _Waiting on the morning sun))_

He sang as loudly as he could, melody sweeping them all along with it. Familiar faces peered out of the crowd at him, mouthing along the lyrics as they waved. The chorus of the dead reached it's peak.

 _((_ _Soldier keep on marching on_ _  
_ _Soldier keep on marching on))_

And then the vision and song vanished as if it had never been, Cybertron's ruins and Prime the only things to bear witness. Optimus finished the last line solemnly, giving out a calm sigh.

 _((_ _Solider keep on marching on_ ))


End file.
